Quick answer
Was Romina Ashrafi's murder adjudicated? Yes. A court of first instance convicted her father, Reza Ashrafi, of murder and sentenced him to nine years in prison in August 2020. The case drew national attention not only because a child was killed by a parent, but because Romina had reportedly expressed fear about being returned home before her death.
Before the murder
Romina left home with an older man whom reports identified as Bahman Khavari. Police later located them. Multiple established sources reported that Romina warned authorities that she feared her father's reaction, yet she was returned to the family home.
This file does not use Romina's decision to leave home as a justification or causal excuse for violence against her. It is included only because it formed part of the documented sequence that preceded her killing.
The case
Romina was killed at the family home in Talesh in northern Iran on May 21, 2020. Reporting identified her father as the person responsible. Graphic details are not necessary to understand the case and are omitted here.
Romina left home and was later located by police. Reports state that she expressed fear about being returned to her father.
Romina was killed at the family home in Talesh.
A court of first instance convicted Reza Ashrafi of murder and sentenced him to nine years in prison.
Investigation, judgment and wider significance
The criminal responsibility addressed by the court was not left unresolved: Reza Ashrafi was convicted. Human Rights Watch later cited Romina's case while discussing deficiencies in legal protections for women and children and noted the nine-year sentence imposed on her father.
Romina's mother publicly criticized the sentence and sought a harsher outcome. That reaction is part of the documented aftermath, but the archive records the judgment actually imposed rather than substituting a desired sentence for the legal result.
The case therefore appears in Iran's Solved / Adjudicated archive. Its broader policy implications — including how authorities respond when children report fear of family violence — remain important institutional questions separate from the adjudicated identity of the killer.
Sources and verification
- The Guardian / Associated Press — May 27, 2020
Contemporary reporting on Romina's age, the return home despite her reported fear, the killing and the initial investigation. - The Guardian — August 28, 2020
Reports the nine-year sentence and the response of Romina's mother. - Human Rights Watch — December 4, 2020
Places the case in the broader legal context and records the first-instance murder conviction and nine-year prison term.